Measles Vaccine Misinfo: RFK Jr. Claims Immunity ‘Wanes Quickly’ Despite Evidence

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called for people to get the measles vaccine while in the same breath falsely claiming it hasn’t been “safety tested” and its protection is short-lived.

Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist now overseeing federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had shied away from a full-throated endorsement of measles vaccinations, instead claiming the vaccine is the “most effective way” to prevent the virus’ spread.

In an interview Wednesday with CBS News, Kennedy said the Trump administration was focused on finding ways to treat people who choose not to get vaccinated. However, there are no approved treatments for measles, which kills almost 3 out of every 1,000 people diagnosed.  

Many medical experts have taken issue with his approach to the current measles outbreak, which has included emphasizing unproven treatments and framing vaccination as a personal choice (which some doctors view as a nod to his anti-vaccine supporters). 

Kennedy also suggested that measles cases are inevitable in the United States because of ebbing immunity from vaccines — a notion doctors say is false. 

Experts Push Back

Kennedy’s remarks come amid a rising number of measles cases in the U.S., largely driven by vaccine hesitancy. Experts say his statements are not only misleading but dangerous. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, strongly refuted Kennedy’s claims, noting that two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine provide lifelong protection.

“We eliminated measles from this country. That could never happen if immunity waned,” Offit said. The MMR vaccine works by producing memory cells that give the immune system long-term recognition of the virus, he added.

A Return of a Nearly Vanquished Virus

Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, meaning it no longer spreads continually within the country. But outbreaks can still occur when the virus is brought in by travelers and spreads through communities with low vaccination rates. That’s exactly what happened in the ongoing outbreak centered in a Mennonite community in Gaines County, Texas — where vaccination rates are low due to religious and personal objections.

So far, 668 measles cases have been reported in 2024, including two pediatric deaths and one suspected adult fatality — the first child death from measles in the U.S. since 2003.

False Equivalencies and Misleading Comparisons

Kennedy also referenced measles outbreaks in Europe as a way to downplay the U.S. situation. He pointed to 127,000 reported European cases — but that number spans an entire year across 53 countries. The World Health Organization attributes the surge largely to low vaccination rates in southeastern Europe, not vaccine failure.

A Call for Personal Choice, Not Mandates

While Kennedy continues to recommend the measles vaccine, he’s careful to frame it as a personal choice, not a requirement — a position many public health experts say plays to his anti-vaccine base. “People should get the measles vaccine,” Kennedy said. “But the government should not be mandating those.”

In reality, the federal government does not mandate vaccinations. Instead, states handle vaccine requirements, especially for schoolchildren. All 50 states allow exemptions for medical reasons, and most permit religious or personal belief exemptions.

The Real Stakes

There is no approved treatment for measles, a disease that kills roughly 3 in every 1,000 people infected. Medical professionals stress that prevention — through vaccination — remains the only effective line of defense.

Despite Kennedy’s claims, the MMR vaccine is both thoroughly tested and proven effective. Public health leaders warn that undermining confidence in it, especially during an outbreak, risks reversing decades of progress against a once-deadly childhood disease.

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